Corbett Ready To Cave On Medicaid Proposal’s Work Search

03/07/2014

HARRISBURG (AP) – Gov. Tom Corbett appears ready to drop a condition of his proposal to accept federal Medicaid expansion dollars to expand health care to thousands of working poor in the state. A letter from Corbett to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius concerns his condition that some newly eligible adults meet job-search requirements. Corbett notes that Sebelius’ staff has had a policy position against tying Medicaid eligibility to what he calls “job training and steps toward employment.” Then he asks for a chance to institute a voluntary, incentive-only one-year pilot program for able-bodied adults. Advocates for the uninsured say no state has ever tied Medicaid coverage to such a requirement and that it isn’t allowed by law.

UPDATE II: Cheerleader, 18, suing parents allegedly partied it up at her attorney's house where she is staying, lawsuit says

03/07/2014

Rachel Canning, 18, in court. (file)

The other shoe is dropping in the now world-famous case of high school honor student and cheerleader Rachel Canning of New Jersey. Earlier this week, a judge rejected her emergency request for financial support and high school tuition payments from her parents.
Now, her parents are hitting back, accusing the attorney handling their daughter’s case and with whom she is staying of allowing alcoholic parties with the 18-year-old.
According to our sister website, NJ.com, Canning’s mother and father claim that John Inglesino, whose daughter is a classmate and friend of Rachel, allowed alcoholic parties and made a bad situation even worse. They also accused Inglesino of subsidizing their daughter’s lawsuit against them, "rather than providing responsible guidance in abiding by a parent’s rules"
Inglesino has acknowledged helping underwrite Rachel’s legal bills, NJ.com says.

Background according to NJ.com: In a sworn statement, Sean Canning said his daughter’s first experience with alcohol was at the Inglesino house. "Rachel came home bragging saying that during the limo ride to N.Y., Mrs. Inglesino gave all the girls wine coolers to drink. This type of behavior we did not condone."

He said had the Inglesino family not "enabled this situation to an absurd level, Rachel may have actually learned a life lesson and returned home and kept our family whole. Instead, the Inglesino family has made a difficult situation horrible and broken apart a family. Under the guise of good intentions, they have arrogantly placed themselves in our stead an operated under the belief that their parenting style is somehow superior to our own."

Her mother, Elizabeth Canning, said in an accompanying sworn statement that her daughter’s move to the Inglesino’s home was a private matter purely between her and the Inglesinos, but charged that "the Inglesinos, while purporting to help, have actually been a tremendous hindrance in family healing."

Inglesino, a well-connected attorney and former freeholder in Morris County, did not respond to calls for comment. A woman who identified herself as his eldest daughter declined comment. But in a certification submitted as part of Canning’s lawsuit, Inglesino said he and his wife invited the troubled young woman to stay in their house because his daughter Jaime "wanted to help her friend." He called Rachel extremely intelligent.

"My wife and I remain mystified as to how the Cannings, or any other parent, could simply decide to disavow themselves of their daughter and abandon her in her senior year of high school — particularly a daughter such as Rachel," Inglesino said in the court papers. He noted that Rachel has been accepted at several colleges. And her lawsuit to get her parents to pay for college still goes on.

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BROWN SHIRT ALERT: Dog wardens to go door-to-door in Cumberland County about canine licenses

03/07/2014

Wardens will check for licenses, rabies vaccination

CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. -- Dog wardens will canvass homes in Cumberland County in March and April to ensure all dog owners have current licenses and rabies vaccinations for their dogs.

The law states that all dogs three months or older must be licensed by Jan. 1 of each year.

The fee for a license is $6.45 for each spayed or neutered dog and $8.45 for other dogs. Additionally, all dogs and non-feral cats three months of age and older must be vaccinated against rabies. 

Violators can be cited with a maximum fine of $300 per violation plus court costs.

Licenses can be obtained through the Cumberland County Treasurer's office by calling 717-240-6380 or at treasurer.ccpa.net.

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Seriously: Obama Rejects “Deporter in Chief” Label

03/07/2014

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Thursday rejected criticism from a prominent Hispanic leader who dubbed him the “deporter in chief” for the record number of undocumented migrants deported since he took office.

“I am the champion-in-chief of comprehensive immigration reform,” he declared during a forum at the Newseum in Washington to promote the registration of Latinos in the new medical insurance plans available under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

The president thus responded to one of the country’s most important Hispanic figures, National Council of La Raza head Janet Murguia, who had sharply criticized Obama earlier this week.

“For us, this president has been the deporter in chief,” she said Tuesday during a La Raza awards dinner in Washington. “Any day now, this administration will reach the 2 million mark for deportations.

Questioned on Thursday about the record number of deportations during his mandate, Obama reiterated that as long as Congress does not act to reform the immigration system he does not have the authority to stop those expulsions.

“I cannot ignore those laws any more than I can ignore any other laws on the books,” the president said, noting that he had used his executive authority to suspend deportations of many young immigrants who were children when their parents brought them to the United States.

Last June, the Senate approved a bipartisan bill on immigration reform that strengthens border security and includes a path to citizenship for undocumented foreigners.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has yet to take up the measure.

When asked on Thursday about whether his credibility among Hispanics has been damaged by the deportations and the apparent impossibility at present of moving forward on immigration reform, Obama answered: “I think the community understands that I’ve got their back and I’m fighting for them.”

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Oppressive, Communist Cuba Accepts EU Proposal to Begin Negotiations

03/07/2014

Because compromising with tyrannical regimes is trending right now!!!


HAVANA – Cuba informed the European Union Thursday that it has accepted the bloc’s proposal to begin negotiations on political dialogue and cooperation, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said.

“Cuba received with satisfaction the Feb. 10 proposal of ... (EU) high representative (Catherine Ashton), which means the end of the unilateral policies of the European Union on Cuba and accepting the start of negotiations on that subject,” he told a press conference.

Rodriguez guaranteed that Cuba will act “constructively” in the talks.

“Cuba is fully willing to discuss, on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect, any issue, including the issues of human rights about which it has great concern regarding what is occurring in different European countries,” said the foreign minister.

After reviewing the milestones that have marked the relationship between the 28-nation bloc and the communist island, Rodriguez said that the EU’s decision to propose this negotiation process “shows that the unilateral policies are not working and have no place in the current period.”

“The unilateral policies such as those applied by the government of the United States against Cuba based on the economic, political and media embargo anchored in the Cold War ... do not work, will not work,” he said.

EU foreign ministers agreed last month to open negotiations with Cuba on a political dialogue and cooperation agreement.

Talks will begin while the “common position” – the restrictive policy that has governed EU relations with Havana since 1996 – remains in force, according to Ashton, who is the bloc’s top diplomat.

This latest step is not a change in direction for the European bloc vis-a-vis the island but rather the creation of a new instrument to deepen relations, encourage the reforms undertaken by the communist regime and foster greater respect for human rights in Cuba, she said.

The EU resumed dialogue with Cuba in 2008 after lifting – at Spain’s suggestion – the diplomatic sanctions imposed in 2003 after Havana imprisoned 75 dissidents.

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AWESOME VIDEO: DNC Members Can't Think of Single Hillary Achievement

03/07/2014

DNC Members Can't Think of Single Hillary Achievement

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Old School Pa. Dem to Leave: No word on how radical his replacement will be

03/07/2014

Lebder will step down after 40 years as head of Fayette County Democrats

Evan Sanders | Daily Courier

Fred Lebder (left), chairman of the Fayette County Democratic Party, speaks with Sen. Robert Casey Jr. during Casey's visit to Sam's Restaurant in Uniontown on October 30, 2008. Lebder, now 93, announced on Thursday, March 6, 2014, that he will not seek re-election when his term expires in the spring.

The longtime leader of Fayette County's Democratic party has announced he will not seek re-election when his term expires this spring.

“When my time is up, it's up,” Fred Lebder said on Thursday. “It's time to let somebody else take the reins.”

Lebder, 93, said he has served as the Democratic committee chairman for 40 years, but records kept by the state Democratic Party show he has held it longer, for 46 years.

Lebder cited the recent loss of his wife, Norma, as one reason he is stepping aside.

“She was my right arm, and she helped me politically,” Lebder said. “Behind every man, there is a good woman, and she was a good one.”

Lebder would not elaborate on his work as chairman, but he noted that under his guidance, the county “is still electing Democrats.”

Current and former elected Democrats said Lebder's shoes will be difficult to fill.

“There are a lot of people who will hate to see him go, and a lot who won't,” said Suzanne Teslovich, who served two terms as a county commissioner with Lebder. “The question is who will try to take over.

“I don't think there's anybody strong enough to take control and have the power he had,” Teslovich said.

Lebder's affiliation with Fayette's Democratic party includes 28 years as a county commissioner, beginning in 1968. During his tenure, little was accomplished without Lebder's blessing, Teslovich said.

“If you needed something from somebody in office, they always said they had to ask Fred first,” Teslovich said. “It was what Fred said.”

Teslovich said she held her own during her time on the board, sometimes teaming up with the minority Republican commissioner at the time, the late Marion “Slugger” Klingensmith. She recalled an instance in which she and Klingensmith worked together to persuade a county employee with ties to Lebder to fix a bridge.

The employee did not want to fix the bridge, she said, because it was in a township where he had lost an election as supervisor. Lebder had helped him get the job with the county, she said. Teslovich said she and Klingensmith worked together to remove the employee from his position.

Connellsville attorney Carmine Molinaro served four terms as a county commissioner with Lebder.

“Fred was a master politician,” Molinaro said. “He was well-respected on the state level, and even the national level. Those are very tough shoes to fill.”

Molinaro said Lebder was effective because the skills he developed as the sole distributor of a cookie franchise transferred easily to the duties of a party chairman.

“Because of his business background as exclusive distributor of Salerno and Mama's cookies, he had a distribution mentality,” Molinaro said. “He knew the art of distribution, and in retail politics, that's part of it. He knew demographically where political cards went, how to get the signs out, and the poll workers where they were supposed to be.”

Vincent Zapotosky, a current county commissioner, described Lebder as a “legend” throughout the state.

“He has served the Democrat Party for decades at his own expense, and not just financially,” Zapotosky said. “He started a lot of public service careers. I don't know anybody who's going to be as committed to it as he has been. There will never be another Fred Lebder.”

Janice Snyder, clerk of courts, said she has not always agreed with Lebder, but he has accomplished much for the county.

She said Lebder has been considering leaving politics for some time, especially since his wife died in July. The two were inseparable, she said, often attending political functions together.

Changes in other elected offices, including the pending retirement of long-time Democrat state Sen. Rich Kasunic, might have been a factor in Lebder's decision, she said.

“With (Rich) Kasunic retiring, he's maybe seeing an end to an era,” Snyder said. “I'm glad to see he's going out in style.”

Lebder said he will convene a committee meeting after the May 20 primary to elect a new party leader.

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Black people duped

03/07/2014

People in the media and academia are mostly leftists hellbent on growing government and controlling our lives. Black people, their politicians and civil rights organizations have become unwitting accomplices.

Ordinary black people have been sold on the importance of electing blacks to high public office. After centuries of black people having been barred from high elected office, no decent American can have anything against their wider participation in our political system.

For several decades, blacks have held significant political power. They have been mayors and dominant forces on city councils in major cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington, Memphis, Atlanta, Baltimore and New Orleans. Blacks have held administrative offices such as school superintendent and chief of police. Plus, there are 44 black members of Congress and a black president.

What has this political power meant for the socioeconomic problems faced by a large segment of the black community? Clearly, it has done little or nothing for academic achievement; the number of black students scoring proficient is far below the national average. It is a disgrace that the average white seventh- or eighth-grader can run circles around the average black 12th-grader in most academic subjects. The political and education establishment tells us that the solution lies in larger budgets, but some of the worst public school districts have the highest spending per student.

Each year, roughly 7,000 blacks are murdered. Ninety-four percent of the time, the murderer is another black person. Young black males have a greater chance of reaching maturity on the battlefield than on the streets of some cities. Black political power and massive city budgets have done absolutely nothing to ameliorate this problem of black insecurity.

Most of the problems faced by the black community have their roots in a black culture that differs significantly from the black culture of yesteryear. Today only 35 percent of black children are raised in two-parent households, but as far back as 1880, in Philadelphia 75 percent of black children were raised in two-parent households — and it was as high as 85 percent in other places. Even during slavery, in which marriage was forbidden, most black children were raised with two biological parents.

The black family managed to survive centuries of slavery and generations of the harshest racism and Jim Crow to ultimately become destroyed by the welfare state. The black family has fallen victim to the vision fostered by some intellectuals that, in the words of a sociology professor in the 1960s, “it has yet to be shown that the absence of a father was directly responsible for any of the supposed deficiencies of broken homes.” The real issue to these intellectuals “is not the lack of male presence but the lack of male income.” That suggests that fathers can be replaced by a welfare check. The weakened black family gives rise to problems such as high crime, predation and other forms of anti-social behavior.

The cultural problems that affect many black people are challenging and not pleasant to talk about, but incorrectly attributing those problems to racism and racial discrimination, a need for more political power, and a need for greater public spending condemns millions of blacks to the degradation and despair of the welfare state.

Walter Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Irony: Groups want abortion supporting GSA to shun Barbie for sexualizing children

03/07/2014

Girl Scouts asked to end partnership with Barbie

A few weeks after her foray into the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, Barbie is entangled in controversy again, this time over her ties with the Girl Scouts.

Two advocacy groups often critical of corporate advertising tactics — the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for a New American Dream — on Thursday urged the Girl Scouts of the USA to end its partnership with the doll’s manufacturer, the Mattel toy company.

The partnership, announced last August, includes a Barbie-themed activity book, a website, and a Barbie participation patch — the first Girl Scout uniform patch with corporate sponsorship.

“Holding Barbie, the quintessential fashion doll, up as a role model for Girl Scouts simultaneously sexualizes young girls, idealizes an impossible body type, and undermines the Girl Scouts’ vital mission to build ‘girls of courage, confidence and character,”’ said Susan Linn, director of the Boston-based commercial-free childhood organization.

She said the Barbie patch — targeted at 5-to-8-year-old Daisies and Brownies — would transform these girls into “walking advertisements.”

“This is product placement at its worst,” said New American Dream’s executive director, Wendy Philleo, who described herself as a longtime admirer of the Girl Scouts.

“Our children are already being bombarded by marketers’ pitches at stores, at home, online, on TV, and in school,” said Philleo, whose Charlottesville, Va.-based group tries to counter the commercialization of American culture.

The Girl Scouts’ national headquarters in New York rejected the groups’ appeal.

“Our partnership with Mattel focuses on career exploration and teaches girls about inspiring women in a fun way,” its statement said. “We stand behind this partnership, as it helps us bring to over 2 million Girl Scouts the message that they can do anything.”

That’s the essence of the Barbie uniform patch — a bright pink oval with a gold-letter slogan stitched on it: “Be anything. Do everything.”

Barbie — still slim-waisted and long-legged after 55 years — had pursued roughly 150 different careers, and she stretched her boundaries again in February by posing along with real-life supermodels in Sports Illustrated’s 50th anniversary swimsuit issue. Anticipating the criticism that ensued, Mattel promoted the campaign with the catchword “unapologetic.”

In announcing the partnership with Mattel last August, Girl Scouts CEO Anna Maria Chavez depicted both her own organization and Barbie as “American icons.”

“Together, we are teaching girls that their futures are wide open with possibilities,” Chavez said at the time.

The Girl Scouts have not disclosed the monetary value of the partnership with Mattel.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood said that a game on the Girl Scouts’ Barbie-themed website encouraged girls to identify careers based on attire — “from a veterinarian in a frilly miniskirt, to a pink-suited U.S. president, to a race car driver in stilettos.”

Said Susan Linn, the campaign director, “The website is little more than an interactive ad for Barbie promoting the brand’s insidious message that women really are what they wear.”

Due to their size and high profile, the Girl Scouts have been a frequent target of criticism over the years, notably from certain conservatives who contend — despite the Girl Scouts’ repeated denials — that the organization tilts toward the abortion-rights side of the national abortion debate.

Last month, some anti-abortion groups launched a boycott of the Girl Scouts’ annual drive to sell cookies.

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Death By Regulation: Rhode Island lawmakers urged to look at all economic options

03/07/2014

PROVIDENCE, R.I.  — The goal was to get ideas, and House members picked up a number of them Thursday — some from a senior vice president at one of the state’s largest employers and some from an analyst who specializes in urban settings.

Each had his own suggestions on how Rhode Island can fix its economy, but they agreed on one thing: The state needs to weigh its options before embarking on a strategy.

John Kennedy, a senior vice president at CVS Caremark, offered perspective on what the Woonsocket-based company looks for when it thinks about expanding into a new state.

The company considers four factors, he said:

The state’s fiscal stability, which touches on employment and housing price trends and long-term budget projections.

The cost of doing business in the state, which depends upon “the regulatory environment,” the “totality of the tax burden” and the cost of energy.

The quality of the work force and how much the state invests in education and job training.

The available infrastructure, meaning roads and highways and the digital communication options.

“Those are the four pillars,” he told lawmakers in the House lounge.

Kennedy, who oversees tax risk management at the company, said he believes CVS Caremark is “quite happy with the benefits that we get from Rhode Island.” But his list had some lawmakers wondering what the company likes about the state when it fails to meet some of those needs.

Kennedy said the company, which employs some 220,000, including 6,000 in Rhode Island, has deep ties to the state because it was founded here. But he acknowledged that in his experience as a tax consultant before coming to CVS Caremark, Rhode Island was rarely a factor “in the places they were looking to do business.

“People just weren’t thinking about Rhode Island,” he said.

He urged the lawmakers to “look at all the options” as they review the state’s tax structure, and he also encouraged them to think about the state’s regulations.

“We don’t expect to be regulation free,” he said. “But regulation, in our judgment, has to be clear, transparent, predictable, I’ll use the word, stable.”

The other speaker at the House economic workshop was Aaron M. Renn, an analyst who urged lawmakers to take several specific steps, among them: eliminate the minimum corporate tax, waive all permit fees for new businesses during their first year, eliminate the requirement that employers offer temporary disability insurance and reform an unemployment insurance program that has been called the most expensive in the country.

Renn also urged lawmakers to look “for other regulations” where the state is “clearly an outlier” and suggested they rethink the Deepwater Wind plan to put a wind farm off the state’s coast, contending it will only raise electric rates that are already the 10th highest in the country.

House Speaker Gordon Fox said the workshop offered “food for thought” on a number of fronts and will fuel discussions as the 2014 legislative session continues.

“You could see the looks on the faces, those ‘aha’ moments,” he said.

Fox said one thing he took out of the meeting is that “we have to come up with a plan and stick to that plan.”

Rhode Island’s average unemployment rate last year was 9.5 percent, second only to Nevada’s, which was 9.8 percent, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The national unemployment rate for the year was 7.4 percent.

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Judge: Texas man can be tried in childhood crime

03/07/2014

CONROE, Texas (AP) - In the years that followed the 1998 attack that horribly burned her then-8-year-old son, Colleen Middleton felt fear and frustration over the possibility that the person she believed was responsible would never be taken to trial.

That fear and frustration was replaced by relief Thursday as a judge ruled that a Texas man accused of dousing the boy with gasoline and setting him on fire when he was a teenager can be tried as an adult for murder after the victim died from his burns 13 years later.

Don Willburn Collins was 13 when authorities allege he attacked Robert Middleton on his eighth birthday near the younger boy's home in Splendora, about 35 miles northeast of Houston. Middleton was burned across 99 percent of his body and endured years of physical therapy before he died in 2011 from skin cancer blamed on his burns.

Colleen Middleton said she is happy her son will finally get his day in court.

"When Robert died we were thinking maybe nothing will ever happen, maybe someone is just going to get away with what they did to him," she said. "It's been a long road."

Robert Middleton named Collins as his attacker and the older boy was arrested in 1998. Collins spent several months in juvenile detention but was released after prosecutors said they didn't have enough evidence to pursue the case.

Shortly before he died, Middleton gave a videotaped deposition in which he accused Collins for the first time of sexually assaulting him two weeks before the attack. The sexual assault allegation prompted investigators to reopen the case. Prosecutors charged the now 28-year-old Collins with murder last year, but they needed to move the case from juvenile to adult court to take him to trial.

After a three-day hearing on the issue this week, state District Judge Kathleen Hamilton ruled that Collins could be tried for murder by an adult court.

"Because the state did not have probable cause to proceed in juvenile court and new evidence has been found since the 18th birthday of (Collins), I have further determined there is probable cause to believe that (Collins) committed the offense alleged," Hamilton said.

Several witnesses testified at the hearing that Collins had confessed to them or others that he was responsible for the attack on Middleton. Part of Middleton's taped deposition also was shown.

Collins was convicted in a separate case of sexually assaulting another 8-year-old boy. Now an adult, the victim testified this week that Collins had threatened to burn him if he told anybody what happened.

Collins' attorney, E. Tay Bond, questioned the reliability of Middleton's statements, as well as secondhand statements from other witnesses.

"There is no physical evidence that links Don Collins to this case," Bond said. "There are no eyewitnesses."

Bond also argued that the case should not be transferred to adult court because in 1998, a juvenile had to be at least 14 years old for a capital felony offense case to be transferred. The law was changed in 1999 to lower that age to 10.

Prosecutors said the murder didn't take place until 2011, well after the law was changed.

Once the trial concludes, Collins could appeal Hamilton's ruling and any conviction in Middleton's death.

Montgomery County Attorney J.D. Lambright called the ruling a "tremendous victory" for the Middleton family. He said the prosecution will now be turned over to the county district attorney's office, which will work to indict Collins. Lambright's office is responsible for matters involving juveniles.

Prosecutors said they believe their work to transfer a case under these circumstance is a first for Texas. Legal experts say they have not heard of a similar case before.

Some legal experts say prosecutors will have difficulty convicting Collins of murder and preventing the decision to transfer the case to adult court from being overturned on appeal.

Grant Scheiner, a Houston criminal defense attorney not involved in the case, said the biggest hurdle for prosecutors will be linking Middleton's death in 2011 from cancer to the attack in 1998.

"I think (prosecutors) are going to face an uphill battle here," Scheiner said.

Collins, who is being held on a $1 million bond, will remain jailed. He also faces a charge in neighboring San Jacinto County of failing to register as a sex offender.

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Cincinnati police probe Greenpeace security breach

03/07/2014

CINCINNATI—Cincinnati police on Thursday called for a "security summit" of the city's businesses in the aftermath of a breach at Procter & Gamble Co. headquarters by Greenpeace activists.

Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said it was "a wake-up call" when activists got into P&G's downtown offices Tuesday and used zip lines to unfurl protest banners from the 12th floor to draw attention to the company's use of a palm oil supplier Greenpeace says is tied to tropical forest destruction in Indonesia.

A P&G spokeswoman said an activist posing as a businessman on the way to a meeting let the others in. She said security has been tightened since the activists' "well-planned" protest.

"We take what happened the other day very seriously," the police chief said. "Greenpeace has very talented people that do what they do all over the world. We're just fortunate that it was Greenpeace, and they didn't have nefarious intentions that had any nexus to terrorism or any other harmful act for the citizens of Cincinnati."

Blackwell said he wants to convene the meeting soon to make sure corporations and hotels have solid security plans.

In the protest, nine activists were arrested on burglary and vandalism charges. They each posted $50,000 bonds Wednesday and were released from jail. The FBI has joined the investigation, and police say more arrests are possible.

P&G spokeswoman Lisa Popyk reiterated in an interview Thursday that the company is committed to 100 percent sustainable sourcing of its palm oil by 2015, saying it is "on the same side of the issue" as Greenpeace.

Authorities were stunned that the activists were able to carry out their protest from inside a company known for stringent measures to protect both its personnel and innovations in best-selling brands, including Tide detergent and Pampers diapers.

"Our global security team is crackerjack, and they have already taken steps to better secure the area," Popyk said.

She declined to disclose the changes, and said she didn't know whether anyone had been disciplined for the security breach. She said the initial investigation indicated an activist claiming to have an appointment and dressed in business attire let in the others through another door. They carried their protest materials, including a tiger costume, in what Popyk called "inconspicuous bags."

"It was very clever and well-planned," she said.

She said P&G has surveillance cameras throughout its buildings and was still reviewing them.

In a statement after his release from jail, activist Tyler Sanville, 28, of Santa Cruz, Calif., said the group wanted to get its message out. "That Procter & Gamble is buying palm oil linked to rainforest destruction, which is destroying the habitat of endangered species like orangutans and Sumatran tigers," he said.

The protest banners targeted P&G's Head & Shoulders shampoo. Palm oil is commonly used in shampoo, cosmetics and other personal products.

David Ginsburg, president of Downtown Cincinnati Inc., said Thursday that several members of the business organization have expressed interest in reviewing security.

"Something like this happens, and it (security) gets to the front burner," Ginsburg said.

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